Sports camps break new ground

Sports Friends Malawi Director, Luke Voight, shares about how the ministry is breaking new ground

Since it was set up, Sports Friends Malawi has worked exclusively with the Africa Evangelical Church (AEC) to great effect. Over 4,500 young people have come under its trained coaches, with hundreds of teams, both netball and football, being established.

Now the work is starting to expand to encompass new denominations and groups of church leaders in and around the Mangochi area at the southern end of Lake Malawi.

Two camps, attended by a total of 30 coaches, have been held; one with the Evangelical Baptist Church of Malawi (EBCM) and the other with a ‘Pastors’ Fraternal’, a grouping of church leaders from 19 different denominations who meet for support and training.

30 new teams

The result is that, because of the camps, 30 new teams, 15 netball and 15 football, have been established.

Luke talked about highlights and outcomes from the training camps: “One of the biggest highlights was when Berhanu, (one of the founders of Sports Friends and current Sports Friends Ethiopia Director and leader of Sports Friends East Africa) shared with the pastors’ fraternal in Mangochi. The Spirit of God spoke through him in power and the pastors really got the vision for sports ministry and are excited about what God has for their churches in the future.

Luke (centre) with Berhanu and Clement of Sports Friends Malawi

National sports ministry

“A reason to praise the Lord is that the EBCM is mobilizing their national sports ministry co-ordinator and he is the main one following up with these newly trained sports ministers. The Church is taking responsibility and really mentoring their sports-ministry leaders well,” he said.

Looking ahead, Luke is asking for prayer for specific areas of the future development of this work:

“As we are now working in many areas that are not particularly welcoming to the Gospel, please pray for boldness and love for the churches we’ve trained in sports ministry because God is using the ministry magnificently to impact many lives currently outside His Kingdom.

“Also, please pray for wisdom for us as things are really moving well here and we need guidance from the Lord as to who to work with and how best to do it,” he said.